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US Ambassador
Launches a PR Offensive
By Michael Alan Hamlin
March 4, 2003
Sometimes, life just gets weirder
and weirder. In what has to be one of the most bizarre efforts ever
to offset the effects of negative reporting, an international public
relations firm working for the Philippine government may have enlisted
the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines in a scheme to attack the
credibility of an editorial writer at The Asian Wall Street Journal.
The plan called for senior writers and editors of competing international
publications to call a number that put them in direct contact with
Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone, Jr., who then criticized the
Journal's editorials on the Philippines.
Although Journal editorials are written
anonymously, editorial writer Brett M. Decker visits the Philippines
frequently - generally at least once a month - and is believed to
write virtually all editorials having to do with the Philippines.
The plan was uncovered by Hong Kong
media executive Mark Simon, who works for Apple Daily. International
Herald Tribune (IHT) columnist Thomas Crampton told Simon that he
had been contacted by James Wright of public relations consultancy
Burson-Marsteller. According to Simon, Wright told Crampton that
Ricciardone was unhappy with the Journal's editorials, and that
Crampton could call Ricciardone directly to confirm this.
When Crampton made the call, Ricciardone
did allegedly criticize the Journal's editorials on the Philippines,
and suggested that Crampton write from a different perspective in
his own column, according to Simon.
Simon confronted Wright Tuesday afternoon,
and says Wright owned up to the plot. He also admitted that calls
had been made to a number of news organizations aside from IHT.
While it is fair game for a PR firm
to attempt to convince media to take a client's perspective on contentious
issues, it's very unusual to involve a U.S. government official
in the effort on behalf of another government. As if that weren't
unusual enough, the fact that the effort involves besmirching the
reputation of a conservative U.S. business publication that has
been supportive of a conservative U.S. president on its editorial
pages makes the episode bizarre, indeed.
The Asian Wall Street Journal is
owned and managed by Dow Jones, which also publishes Wall Street
Journal and Wall Street Journal Europe.
Of course, one has to wonder why
a public relations firm would counsel its client to attack a member
of the media in the first place. Most effective PR involves developing
trusting, credible relationships, not demolishing journalists. My
own take is that the higher ups have no idea of the scheme, and
will be horrified when they find out. Burson-Marsteller has done
excellent work for the administration in the past.
Officials at the U.S. Embassy have
yet to confirm whether Ricciardone talked with Crampton and other
journalists invited by Wright to call the ambassador. An official
in the press office of the embassy did promise a statement. But
24 hours later, no response had been forthcoming. Simon, who also
talked with an embassy spokesperson, likewise says he has heard
nothing back. That silence certainly doesn't bode well.
If the effort to discredit Decker
was launched at the behest of the Philippine government, it would
fit what appears to be an emerging pattern of harassment directed
at Decker and other Journal reporters. When an editorial criticized
Philippine Tourism secretary Richard Gordon for remarks made at
a concert attended mostly by Filipino immigrants in the U.S. last
year, Gordon's supporters launched a concerted campaign threatening
legal action and bombarding the paper with e-mail messages claiming
the editorial was an outright lie. Invitations to substantiate that
assertion were not responded to, however, according to Decker.
Earlier this year, in reaction to
a front-page report revealing that the Philippines had misstated
the value of imports in its balance of trade statistics, Finance
secretary Jose Isidro Camacho complained that the story had caused
interest rates on a sovereign bond float to increase, threatened
legal action, and called the reporter's superiors to complain.
The Journal has been tough on the
Philippines. A March 4 editorial complained that President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo had broken an agreement with the U.S. involving
combat action by U.S. troops in the effort to wipe out the notorious
Abu Sayyaf terrorists responsible for kidnapping and killing scores
of innocent Filipinos and a number of foreigners, including Americans.
March 11 the Journal noted that the
American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines has ranked "the
archipelago near the bottom of the list of possible destinations
for investment in Asia." And, March 12, an editorial again
faulted the Philippines for waffling in its resolve to deal with
the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is engaged in armed conflict
against the government.
The March 4 editorial seemed to have
been particularly unnerving. Government response began with a vaporous
letter by Philippine ambassador to the U.S. Albert del Rosario to
Karen Elliot House, publisher of The Wall Street Journal. Generally,
letters go to editors, not the publisher. But clearly del Rosario
- or possibly, his advisors - felt that he would get no where with
that approach, and wrote to the big boss instead. In the end, the
result was the same as if it had gone directly to Decker: it was
published, providing the opportunity to argue the government's perspective.
That letter, however, was - it now
seems - the first volley in a much bigger plan to create problems
for Decker.
Why would Ricciardone agree to participate
in such a plan? Some observers speculate that he has been telling
his own administration officials, including the U.S. president,
that Ms. Arroyo is a dependable ally. But when President George
Bush picks up his morning briefing materials, right smack on top
is a copy of the latest Journal editorial, suggesting otherwise.
That's got to cause some questions.
Further complicating matters is Ms.
Arroyo's impending state visit. The visit will serve as an opportunity
to sell the Philippines to both U.S. investors and the U.S. government.
Negative publicity, naturally, will considerably dampen what enthusiasm
foreign investors may have for the Philippines, and sources suggest
that Ms. Arroyo's inability to follow through on commitments as
an ally in the war on terror is wearing thin in Washington. The
Arroyo administration naturally wants to minimize negative reporting
leading up to the visit.
However, Ms. Arroyo's chief of staff,
Rigoberto Tiglao, claims that the administration has nothing to
do with any effort to discredit Decker. Meanwhile, the state visit
has just been reset for "late spring."
Whatever the reasons for targeting
Decker are - and whoever is really responsible - it's doubtful that
U.S. State Department policy includes participation by ambassadors
in murky character assassination ploys directed at uncooperative
journalists. Ricciardone's definition of uncooperative needs some
massaging, too. Decker, a conservative who previously worked as
a senior aid to Republican majority leader Tom DeLay, for the most
part shares the Bush administration's perspectives.
Knowing Decker, that's unlikely to
change despite the apparent ambush involving Bush's man in Manila.
(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing
director of consultancy TeamAsia and the author of three books on
Asian economies and companies. His latest book is Marketing Asian
Places, of which he is a co-author (Wiley, 2001), and he is currently
at work on High Visibility: The Making and Marketing of Asian Professionals
into Celebrities. Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).
Copyright © 2003 Michael Alan
Hamlin. All Rights Reserved.
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